This week in birds

This week in birds - #662

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is this lovely creature that seems to be looking at us very judgmentally. It is the Antioquia Brushfinch, a bird of the lower layers of shrubby habitats at the northern end of the Central Andes in Colombia. It is generally found in couples or small family groups. The bird is severely threatened by habitat loss. Its known population at present consists of 109 individuals and the population is decreasing. Perhaps it has the right to be judgmental.

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Here are the species that are on The Revelator's watchlist of species at risk in 2026.

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There were conservation successes in 2025 and here are some that made that list.

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On the Severn River, a tributary of Chesapeake Bay, it was a grim year indeed for Ospreys. Only fifteen chicks from the 63 nests survived.

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This is Craig, the super-tusker elephant from Amboseli in Kenya. He was well-known in conservationist circles and news has come that he has died of natural causes at the age of 54.

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So our president boasts of plans to boost oil production in Venezuela but investors do not seem eager to climb onboard, and that may be just as well for the planet as it endures climate change.

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Flat-headed Cats have been seen in Thailand for the first time in almost thirty years. They had been classified as "likely extinct" but that was, thankfully, not the case.

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In a first for insects, stingless bees from the Amazon, the planet's oldest bee species, have been granted legal rights.

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Thousands of dinosaur footprints dating from the Triassic Age have been found in the remote Italian Alps.

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Rare Red-Necked Ostriches have been reintroduced in Saudi Arabia in an area where they went extinct in 1941.

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Recent research has found that hunters used poisoned arrows to slow down their prey as much as 60,000 years ago.

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...

Poetry Sunday: Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

My mother was a farm wife and a prodigious canner. She canned fruit and vegetables from the garden, even occasionally meat. But the best thing that she canned, in my opinion, was blackberry jam. Even as I type those words my mouth waters! Of course, before she could make that jam, somebody had to pick the blackberries. And that somebody was quite often named Dorothy. I think Seamus Heaney might have spent some time among the briars plucking those delicious black fruits as well, so he would have known that "Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour." They don't keep; you have to get that jam made in a hurry! Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust ...

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...

The Nature of Things

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